Well I have been counting and counting and can now reveal that today's fundraising total is...(drumroll)...£581.50!

What a fantastic effort from Purple Class and families to reach such a great total, and some children tell me they still have some sponsor money to bring in.

I want to say a great big thank you to all of you who have supported our project and for your generosity. I have already purchased an indoor cage and stand, food bowl, water bottle, pet carrier, bedding, food and a few more bits and pieces. We are all set! The money raised will go to all of this, and the remaining for ongoing upkeep.

Every day I am asked, "When are the guinea pigs coming?" and every day I repeat the same answer...Mrs Moran and I will get the guineas at half term so they can live with me for a week and settle before meeting more people than they have ever seen before...all of which will struggle to contain their excitement.

A really big thank you to all families who have returned sponsorship money already. I am so pleased with the positive response we have had from you all and your incredible generosity. It is very much appreciated.

If you do have any uncollected sponsor money, it would be good if we could have it by Friday and then I will be able to count up the grand total of our fundraising project! The children are very excited to know how much they have raised through their efforts.

What a fantastic term you have all had! You have worked very hard all term and we have had such a successful end of the term.

I was so proud to see all of your Christmas performances and I am looking forward to showing the DVD to my family too so they can see how amazing you all are. I know that lots of you felt very nervous beforehand but your smiley faces at the end showed me that you were proud of yourselves too.

And the snow…how fun! You have all been so sensible during the winter weather, even when the playground’s been too slippery to go on. I think we managed to match up everyone’s shoes and wellies in the end.

So at the end of our first term together, I wish you all a happy and restful break. Keep up the reading whilst you’re not at school and keep learning the multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables so you can say them by heart.

Next term will see an exciting story topic…we’ll start with 101 Dalmatians and then meet plenty of other doggy friends from there. I am looking forward to our theatre trip in the first week back. I am also very much looking forward to the project for our next topic – you will be thrilled. Mrs Moran and I are very excited!

So have a happy holiday and see you all very soon. Thank you so much to all the families who contributed to gifts for Mrs Moran and I. We are extremely thankful and grateful to you all. Your support means such a lot.

I hope you have had a fantastic summer break and you all have some interesting things to tell us after 6 weeks apart. It was good to see some of you in holiday club this week. Our classroom is now all ready for you and I've put your super scarecrows up in the classroom to spot on the first day back. I wonder what you're looking forward to most.

There's just a few days to go until I see you all together. Remember to get your head in a book so you're not too rusty with your reading and of course, have a practise getting up early!

In our first topic we will be making scarecrows - some big and some small. If your grown ups have any old clothes, hats, wellies or anything else that would look good on a scarecrow, if you have their permission then bring them in. We can then have a good choice of outfits for our scarecrows. How exciting! Also, any scraps of fabric would be useful for our mini scarecrows.

I hope you are enjoying your week away from school learning and are managing to enjoy some sunshine (and put up with the rain!).

I have been busy looking back at your achievements from last term and what a lot of progress I can see! A very well done to you for all your super efforts so far this year.

We have just one half term together in Purple Class left. How time has flown! But it will be an action packed, learning filled, fun term.

I have been getting ready for our next topic of 'The Circus'. What can you find out about the circus? Can you find out what you might see there? If you were a clown, what would your clown name be and would you have any special tricks? Or any funny jokes? You can share your ideas when we're back together next week.

WAKE & SHAKE CHAMPIONS! Well done today for your fantastic performance in the wake and shake competition. Mrs Moss was very impressed with our Mexican wave addition and also with how much your coordination had improved. You certainly deserved the trophy today so well done :)

It's almost time for our sports day Purple Class! I know that you are so excited to join in the fun, games and races on Friday.

The weather forecast is looking promising so please make sure you put some suncream on on Friday morning and that you bring your sunhats along too. It would be a good idea to wear suncream on a normal school day if it's going to be a sunny day. That way you can enjoy the sunshine safely and happily. I'll definitely have mine ready.

Well done on a great half term at school. We have done so much learning through our Adventures topic and also through our Easter topic. You have developed great map work skills in geography, the skill of fair testing in science and good reasoning skills through RE. Of course, your singing in our Easter coffee morning was fantastic too!

I have noticed this term that you are all seeming very much more grown up and are getting so much better at working together fairly and effectively. Well done everyone.

I hope that you can keep reading throughout the holiday (2 weeks away from school learning is definitely needed but can slow us down a little) and practising your maths facts. Remember, we all need to be able to say the multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables quickly, in any order.

Our next topic in school will be 'Inventions' which I will be busy planning over the next few weeks. We will be learning about the Industrial Revolution in history and about forces in science.

I hope you've had a lovely lie in this morning and are enjoying the first day of your little break from school.

I wanted to say how proud I was of all of you at the end of last week.

It was a busy week indeed:

1. We made it to London and back - You showed excellent interest and excitement as we spotted real Egyptian artefacts.

2: Who could forget our class assembly? - What great performers you all were! A very big well done to every single person. You were very brave, grown up and professional and I know you really enjoyed taking part. I know your grown ups would have been really very proud of you too.

3. Your writing is coming on a real treat. - I was very pleased in literacy last week also as I saw great effort in your non-fiction writing. Mrs Moss also told me how much she enjoyed popping into class to see how we were getting on and noticing how much better you were doing in your writing.

So, you deserve a good break!

When we return to school next week, we will be learning all about 'Adventures'. I am busy planning all our fun and exciting learning tasks and I am enjoying researching some famous explorers too. We might pop to Forest School on Monday morning, so remember to bring your wellies back into school for the first day back if you took them home for the holiday.

I wonder if you might have an adventure of your own this holiday? Remember, our imaginations can take us on any adventures we like! We don't even need to leave home for an adventure.

It would be really useful for your learning if your grown ups could help you with a challenge over the next few days. We will be learning to tell the time on an analogue clock in maths. It can be really tricky. If you could get ahead with reminding yourself of o'clock and half past times, that would be great. But it would be even better if your grown ups could also help you with quarter past and quarter to times. If you've got that sorted, your next learning challenge is times to the nearest 5 minutes. Can anyone manage this?

By now hopefully you've had a little rest after a busy last week of term. I wanted to say a big well done to all of you for your wonderful Christmas performances - I was very proud to watch you all singing and dancing so confidently without any help from the teachers. You were very professional. I have a copy of the DVD which my grandma is looking forward to watching over Christmas! A big thank you too for all of your Christmas gifts and goodies - very kind and very much appreciated.

Over the holidays please keep reading and enjoying a book so that we stay ahead with our learning. Also, practise your two times table so you can say the multiplication and the division facts quickly and out of order. This is good to help with our doubles too.

When we start school again after the holidays we'll begin a 'Roald Dahl' topic. I know many of you will be very excited about this! In the first few days we'll be reading some stories and listening to them too. I wonder if any of you watched the new BFG film at the cinema recently...that is still showing in some cinemas and you will probably enjoy it as much as I did!

Perhaps you'd like to read a Roald Dahl book over the holidays...I wonder what your favourite one is. What makes Roald Dahl a super author? We can talk about our ideas when we're back together again.